SHAMED surgeon Gavin Denton is to appear before the General Medical Council again this week to consider if he should be suspended.

Colorectal surgeon Denton worked at Macclesfield District General Hospital until January this year when he resigned after complaints by colleagues relating to "the clinical management of patients who had undergone surgery."

Prior to his resignation he was put on "gardening leave" for three years at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £500,000 while an inquiry into his work took place.

The Macclesfield Express discovered that Denton was given a new job as a surgeon at Scunthorpe General Hospital, on a new supervised training programme recommended by the General Medical Council (GMC).

He still works at the hospital but just months into the post the GMC is investigating fresh complaints after a 56-year-old woman died from complications following a routine operation allegedly carried out by Denton.

Sylvia Cooper, a healthy and glamorous grandmother of two, was admitted for a straight-forward procedure to remove scar tissue from her intestine in February.

She became Denton's patient but one week after the operation was rushed back to the hospital in "absolute agony."

She was then operated on by another surgeon who found a hernia from the previous operation which was repaired.

Three weeks later she was admitted again when her symptoms worsened and two more operations revealed abscesses that were drained.

However, Sylvia's condition continued to deteriorate as she struggled to breath, had a racing pulse, low blood pressure and a high temperature - classic signs of septicaemia and pneumonia.

Her partner Eric Babington and daughters Katie Cooper, 31, and Rebecca Hutton, 37, were terrified by the developments and arranged to meet Denton.

However, Katie claims that he cheerfully reassured them that Sylvia was recovering and even cracked a joke that he was certain she wouldn't die of a heart attack.

Just nine hours later Sylvia was dead after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest caused by septicaemia.

Katie, a clinical psychologist, said: "I believed him when he said mum was getting better and because of him I never got to say goodbye.

"That was the only evening I didn't visit her.

"Denton was never accompanied by anyone and this man is supposed to be supervised."